A
Work of Purification Needed
"LETTER 55"In its entiretySelected
Messages Book 2 pg. 376
Basel, Switzerland
December 8, 1886 Dear
Brethren {G.I.} Butler And {S.N.} Haskell: For
weeks I have not been able to sleep after half past three o'clock. My mind
is deeply exercised in regard to our condition as a people. We ought to be
far in advance of any other people on the earth because we have greater
light and greater knowledge of the truth, which lays us under increased
accountability to advance that light and not only to profess to believe
the truth but to practice it. When we do practice the truth we are then
following Jesus, who is the light of the world; and if we as a people are
not constantly elevating, becoming more and more spiritual minded, we are
becoming like the Pharisees--self-righteous--while we do not the will of
God. We
must have a greater nearness to God. Much less of self and much more of
Jesus Christ and His grace must be brought into our everyday life. We are
living in an important period of this world's history. The end of all
things is at hand; the sands of time are fast running out; soon in heaven
it will be said: "It is done" (Rev. 21:6). "He that is
holy, let him be holy still," "he which is filthy, let him be
filthy still" (Rev. 22:11). Let
our testimonies be sharpened up; let us have a firmer hold on God. I
cannot refrain from prayer at one, two, and three o'clock in the morning
for the Lord to work upon the hearts of the people. I think of all heaven
being interested in the work that is going on upon the earth. Ministering
angels are waiting about the throne to instantly obey the mandate of Jesus
Christ to answer every prayer offered in earnest, living faith. I think of
how many who profess the truth are keeping it apart from their lives. They
do not bring its sanctifying, refining, spiritualizing power into their
hearts. . . . Living
Below Our Privileges
We
are far from being the people God would have us to be, because we do not
elevate the soul and refine the character in harmony with the wonderful
unfolding of God's truth and His purposes. "Righteousness exalteth a
nation: but sin is a reproach to any people" (Prov. 14: 34). Sin is a
disorganizer. Wherever it is cherished--in the individual heart, in the
household, in the church-- there is disorder, strife, variance, enmity,
envy, jealousy, because the enemy of man and of God has the controlling
power over the mind. But let the truth be loved and brought into the life,
as well as advocated, and that man or woman will hate sin and will be a
living representative of Jesus Christ to the world. The
people claiming to believe the truth will not be condemned because they
had not the light, but because they had great light and did not bring
their hearts to the test of God's great moral standard of righteousness.
The people who claim to believe the truth must be elevated by living it
out. Real Bible religion must leaven the life, refine and ennoble the
character, making it more and more like the divine model. Then will the
home be vocal with prayer, with thanksgiving and praise to God. Angels
will minister in the home and accompany the worshiper to the house of
prayer. Let
the churches who claim to believe the truth, who are advocating the law of
God, keep that law and depart from all iniquity. Let the individual
members of the church resist the temptations to practice evils and indulge
in sin. Let the church commence the work of purification before God by
repentance, humiliation, deep heart searching, for we are in the
antitypical day of atonement --solemn hour fraught with eternal results. Let
those who teach the truth present it as it is in Jesus. Under the
subduing, sanctifying, refining influence of the truth of God they are as
clean vessels. Let them be leavened with Bible religion, and what an
influence would go forth from them to the world! Let the individual
members of the church be pure, steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in
the love of Jesus, and they will then be a light to the world. Let the men
standing as watchmen and as shepherds of the flock proclaim the solemn
truth, sound the notes of warning to all people, nations, and tongues. Let
them be living representatives of the truth they advocate, and honor God's
law by strict and holy compliance with its requirements, walking before
the Lord in purity, in holiness, and a power will attend the proclamation
of the truth that will reflect light everywhere. Grieving
the Spirit of God
God
never forsakes people or individuals until they forsake Him. Outward
opposition will not cause the faith of God's people, who are keeping His
commandments, to become dim. The neglect to bring purity and truth into
practice will grieve the Spirit of God and weaken them because God is not
in their midst to bless. Internal corruption will bring the denunciations
of God upon this people as it did upon Jerusalem. Oh, let pleading voices,
let earnest prayer be heard, that those who preach to others shall not
themselves be castaways. My brethren, we know not what is before us, and
our only safety is in following the Light of the world. God will work with
us and for us if the sins which brought His wrath upon the old world, upon
Sodom and Gomorrah and upon ancient Jerusalem, do not become our crime. The
least transgression of God's law brings guilt upon the transgressor, and
without earnest repentance and forsaking of sin he will surely become an
apostate.... Let us as a people, as far as possible, cleanse the camp of
moral defilement and aggravating sins. When sin is making its march upon
the people who claim to be elevating the moral standard of righteousness,
how can we expect God to turn His power in our behalf and save us as a
people that did righteousness? . . . If as a people we do not keep
ourselves in the faith and not only advocate with pen and voice the
commandments of God, but keep them every one, not violating a single
precept knowingly, then weakness and ruin will come upon us. It is a work
that we must attend to in every one of our churches. Each man must be a
Christian. Putting
Away Sin
Let
the sin of pride be put away, let all superfluities of dress be overcome,
and repentance toward God be exercised for the highhanded robbery toward
Him which has withheld money which should flow into the treasury to
sustain the work of God in its mission fields. Let the work of
reformation, of true conversion, be set before and urged upon the people.
Let our works, our deportment, correspond with the work for this time,
that we may say, "Follow me as I follow Christ." Let us humble
our souls before God by humiliation, fasting and prayer, repentance of sin
and putting it away. The
voice of the true watchman needs now to be heard all along the line,
"The morning cometh, and also the night" (Isa. 21:12). The
trumpet must give a certain sound for we are in the great day of the
Lord's preparation. . . . There are many doctrines current in our world.
There is many a religion current that numbers its thousands and tens of
thousands, but there is but one that bears the superscription and the
stamp of God. There is a religion of man and a religion of God. We must
have our souls riveted to the eternal Rock. Everything in God's world,
both men and doctrines and nature itself, is fulfilling God's sure word of
prophecy and accomplishing His grand and closing work in this world's
history. We
are to be ready and waiting for the orders of God. Nations will be stirred
to their very center. Support will be withdrawn from those who proclaim
God's only standard of righteousness, the only sure test of character. And
all who will not bow to the decree of the national councils and obey the
national laws to exalt the sabbath instituted by the man of sin, to the
disregard of God's holy day, will feel, not the oppressive power of popery
alone, but of the Protestant world, the image of the beast. Satan
will work his miracles to deceive; he will set up his power as supreme.
The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not fall. It remains,
while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out--the chaff separated from the
precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but nevertheless it must take
place. None but those who have been overcoming by the blood of the Lamb
and the word of their testimony will be found with the loyal and true,
without spot or stain of sin, without guile in their mouths. We must be
divested of our self-righteousness and arrayed in the righteousness of
Christ. Arrayed
in Christ's Righteousness
The
remnant that purify their souls by obeying the truth gather strength from
the trying process, exhibiting the beauty of holiness amid the surrounding
apostasy. All these, He says, "I have graven ... upon the palms of my
hands" (Isa. 49:16). They are held in everlasting, imperishable
remembrance. We want faith now, living faith. We want to have a living
testimony that shall cut to the heart of the sinner. There is too much
sermonizing and too little ministering. We want the holy unction. We need
the spirit and fervor of the truth. Many of the ministers are half
paralyzed by their own defects of character. They need the converting
power of God. That
which God required of Adam before his fall was perfect obedience to His
law. God requires now what He required of Adam, perfect obedience,
righteousness without a flaw, without shortcoming in His sight. God help
us to render to Him all His law requires. We cannot do this without that
faith that brings Christ's righteousness into daily practice. Dear
brethren, the Lord is coming. Lift up your thoughts and heads and rejoice.
Oh, we would think that those who hear the joyful news, who claim to love
Jesus, would be filled with joy unutterable and full of glory. This is the
good, the joyful news which should electrify every soul, which should be
repeated in our homes and told to those whom we meet on the street. What
more joyful news can be communicated! Caviling and contention with
believers or unbelievers is not the work God has given us to do. If
Christ is my Saviour, my sacrifice, my atonement, then I shall never
perish. Believing on Him, I have life forevermore. Oh, that all who
believe the truth would believe in Jesus as their own Saviour. I do not
mean that cheap faith unsupported by works, but that earnest, living,
constant, abiding faith, that eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the
Son of God. I want not only to be pardoned for the transgression of God's
holy law, but I want to be lifted into the sunshine of God's countenance.
Not simply to be admitted to heaven, but to have an abundant entrance. Salvation
a Union With Christ
Are
we so insensible as a peculiar people, a holy nation, to the inexpressible
love that God has manifested for us? Salvation is not to be baptized, not
to have our names upon the church books, not to preach the truth. But it
is a living union with Jesus Christ, to be renewed in heart, doing the
works of Christ in faith and labor of love, in patience, meekness, and
hope. Every soul united to Christ will be a living missionary to all
around him. He will labor for those near and those afar off. He will have
no sectional feeling, no interest merely to build up one branch of the
work over which he presides and there let his zeal end. All will work with
interest to make every branch strong. There will be no self-love, no
selfish interest. The cause is one, the truth a great whole. Well
may the question be asked with earnest, anxious heart, "Is envy
cherished, is jealousy permitted to find a place in my heart?" If so,
Christ is not there. "Do I love the law of God, is the love of Jesus
Christ in my heart?" If we love one another as Christ has loved us
then we are getting ready for the blessed heaven of peace and rest. There
is no struggling there to be first, to have the supremacy; all will love
their neighbor as themselves. Oh, that God would open the understanding
and speak to the hearts of our churches by arousing the individual
members. . . . Those
who are at ease in Zion need to be aroused. Great is their accountability
who bear the truth and yet feel no weight or burden for souls. Oh, for men
and women professing the truth to arouse, to take on the yoke of Christ,
to lift His burdens. There are wanted those who will not have merely a
nominal interest but a Christlike interest, unselfish--an intense ardor
that will not flag under difficulties or cool because iniquity abounds.
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